An information processing device is known that obtains inference results by applying inference rules to context information inputted and presents the inference results obtained. Here, the context information is information that becomes an application target of the inference rules and is, for example, text information or image information included in document data, measurement data outputted from sensor equipment, operation log data about a device or application software and so on.
As an inference method that such information processing device uses, there exists, for example, deductive inference. In case the deductive inference is used, the information processing device holds an inference rule, for example, shown in an IF-THEN form as indicated by the following expression (1).IF Temperature>100&liquid==waterTHEN liquid->(changes)->gas  (1)
First line of expression (1) shows a condition (IF information) that says “in case temperature is no smaller than 100 degrees centigrade and liquid is water.” Also, second line of expression (1) shows a phenomenon (THEN information) that says, in case the IF information is satisfied, “liquid changes into gas.” The information processing device that uses such inference rule infers, in case the context information inputted satisfies the IF information, that the THEN information set to the IF information concerned occurs.
Such information processing device holds in advance, for example, in designing of a certain device, case information such as important cases in the past, defect cases and so on, and conditions that such cases can occur as inference rules. And such information processing device extracts context information from design document data of the device and applies the inference rules to the context information extracted. In this case, such information processing device can present defect cases that can occur by designing on the basis of such design document data, important cases in the past related to the design concerned and so on as the inference results. As a result, such information processing device can support work of a user who checks contents of the design document data.
By the way, in such information processing device, in case the inference rules are accumulated in large quantities, a great deal of inference results will be obtained. And when the inference results presented become large in quantity, a problem occurs that the inference results become difficult to grasp for the user. As a related technology that solves such a problem, there is a technology that presents a large quantity of information after narrowing it down to a number that is easy to grasp for the user.
For example, in patent document 1, an information processing device is described that accumulates defect occurrence history in a production process in the past, calculates frequency of occurrence, degree of influence and degree of detection for each class of a fault on the basis the defect occurrence history accumulated, and calculates priority of danger by integrating the calculated information. And the information processing device presents to the user fault information sorted by the priority of danger. Accordingly, even in case there is a large quantity of fault information such the user cannot grasp all, the information processing device can present with priority the fault information with high priority of danger to the user.
Also, in non-patent document 1, an information processing device is described that presents, by collaborative filtering using an access history of a plurality of users about a plurality of information, information that is unknown and useful for each user. Even in case there is a large quantity of information such that the user cannot grasp all, the information processing device can present information that is unknown and useful for the user among others.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-280301
Non-Patent Document 1: Naoki Ohsugi et al., “Software Function Recommender System Based on Collaborative Filtering”, Transaction of Information Processing Society of Japan Vol. 45, No. 1, 2004.